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Season record: 50-44
Week 16 record: 2-2
Series record: 14-8, 8 splits
In a short week, the Rangers played .500 ball. The four game series against Houston, the first of seven games they’ll play in the first 11 games after the break, was an important one, since we know the Astros are a good team, and the Texas Rangers are trying to prove they are too.
Nowthree games back in the Wild Card hunt, Texas needs to play better against the better teams and try and take advantage of wins against the Astros boosting them in the division.
They managed to do that in the first two games of the first half. Not so much in the second two.
In Sunday’s game, Jurado got squeezed, to say the least, and after Jesse Chavez experienced something similar on Friday, and that made the game terrible from the beginning.
They could’ve definitely won this series — Saturday’s game was definitely winnable. But a split is better than losing a series and it was good to see the Rangers come out strong after a few days off.
Lance Lynn got his 12th win of the season and looked really sharp in Thursday’s 5-0 shutout. Chavez started Friday’s game and didn’t look sharp, which has been an issue in his last couple starts, and I could see the Rangers potentially moving him back to the bullpen (assuming they can find someone to plug into the rotation in his place). Mike Minor also didn’t seem as sharp, five innings on Saturday, four runs on seven hits and three walks. The extra rest didn’t seem to have the desired effect.
Texas also made a trade. They traded Peter Fairbanks to the Rays for a minor league second baseman, Nick Solak. Solak is a right-hander who was assigned to Triple-A, and about whom JD even said “This is a chance to get a guy who could be an everyday player in the big leagues.” Which, to me, seemed like a very pointed message that Rougie’s time to get things going is very limited. As it should be.
Joey Gallo also made his first appearance in the All-Star Game. One plate appearance, one pitch, one homer. He couldn’t have had a more successful first ASG.
The Rangers have two off days this week, Monday and Thursday. They’ll play two quick home games against the Diamondbacks before they head to Houston to begin a 10-game road trip in which they’ll also face Seattle and Oakland.